Perth Voice Interactive

Jewish comments ‘clumsy’

LIBERAL leader Mike Nahan has accused WA Labor of being anti-Israel in an escalating row with Mt Lawley MP Simon Millman.

In last week’s Voice Mr Millman claimed antisemitism was rife in the WA Liberal party after it emerged  Upper House MLC Jim Chown had described the Chinese as “the Jews of Asia” at a conference in 2015 (“Comment draws ire”, February 23, Voice, 2019).

But Dr Nahan was having none of that.

“Mr Millman’s comments are bizarre and smack of political opportunism by a novice Labor MP, albeit someone who should know better than to stoop so low,” Dr Nahan said.

“I know Mr Millman is a newcomer to state parliament but he should know better than to make these slurs.

“Mr Millman actually downgrades the gravity of anti-semitism by his clumsy attempt to use it for political point scoring.

“I expect once Mr Millman gains more experience in Parliament he will realise how irresponsible such careless comments can be.

“Mr Millman can’t have it both ways. He knows the overwhelming majority of WA Labor’s rank and file membership and his Parliamentary colleagues are anti-Israel.

“The WA Liberals are proud supporters of Israel and the Jewish community.”

“The comments attributed to Mr Chown from four years ago were a reference to China’s entrepreneurialism and intended as a compliment to both the Chinese people and Israelis.”

Mr Millman is a convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel, a group of MPs that aims to engage with the WA Jewish Community and foster cultural, business and political ties between WA and Israel.

He said “I am pleased that Dr Nahan has now clarified that Mr Chown’s reliance on ethnic stereotypes was not intentionally offensive”.

Steve Lieblich commented on behalf of the Jewish Community Council of WA: “We were surprised and disappointed to see a report in the Perth Voice that some comments reportedly made by a Liberal MP several years ago indicate that ‘antisemitism’ and ‘prejudice’ is ‘permeating and pervading the WA Liberal Party.’

“In fact the Jewish Community enjoys very warm relations with both major political parties, and we reject any suggestion that antisemitism pervades either of them.”

Comment ‘was not antisemitic’

MOSHE BERNSTEIN is an adjunct research fellow at Curtin university’s China Australia Writing Centre, and has written about the shared values between Chinese and Jews.

He undertook rabbinical studies in Israel for nine years, and does not consider Mr Chown’s comment offensive.

Entrepreneurial

Dr Bernstein says “the reference of the Chinese as the ‘Jews of Asia’ has a longstanding historical and academic background.

“The entrepreneurial skills of the Chinese minorities in the Southeast Asian diaspora were often compared positively with those of the Jews of Europe.

“The Chinese themselves are happy to be compared to Jews. They look at Jewish acumen in a very positive way… They have admiration for the Jewish contribution to business and entrepreneurialism,” Dr Bernstein said.

“It would seem that in the context of the meeting that it was referring to their ability to make contracts, to do good business, and that would be a positive aspect.”

Dr Bernstein said he’d found the Liberal party highly supportive of the Jewish community and the State of Israel.

“To use a remark like that as a means of suggesting the Liberal frontbench is pervaded by anti-semitism is wrong—it’s morally wrong, it’s absolutely repugnant.

“What Millman suggested—that the Liberal front bench is permeated by anti-semitism—is an absolute falsehood and a total politicisation of a statement that, in and of itself, is not antisemitic.”

by DAVID BELL

GROUND has been broken on the first big apartment project in Bayswater to take advantage of the Metronet rollout.

After more than three years wending through the planning approval process, One Foyle Road was the first major block of this scale to be approved under the city’s town centre structure plan.

But it’s the block that almost wasn’t: while the plans did not attract anywhere near the same level of public outrage as the controversial Yolk development at 9-11 King William Street, Bayswater council’s planning staff wanted to reject the Foyle Road application due to its “excessive bulk and scale”.

The final decision lay with the state government’s Development Assessment Panel, which approved it 4-1 in May last year.

The development will be built on a sloped car park, and the DAP said the application was “of sound architectural design that responded positively to its setting and difficult site configuration and topology.

“…The panel noted the development received overwhelming support from the local community and supported its positive contribution to the upgrade of the town centre.”

Mark D’Alessandro from JCM Property Group says the approval process was lengthy, but after three and a half years they’re glad to be finally turning the first sod.

He says he wanted to deliver a good design for Bayswater, and he says it’ll offer an affordable housing option with 17 apartments close to the Bayswater train station, which is due to be revamped as part of the Metronet upgrades.

Construction is estimated to finish late 2020.

by DAVID BELL

AUSTRALIA POST will be getting a stern letter from Bayswater council’s access and inclusion committee because it keeps sending residents hither and thither to find undelivered parcels.

Parcels bound for Maylands residents are ending up at Inglewood, Bassendean and even Malaga post offices.

Bayswater councillor Elli Petersen-Pik says no one’s complaining about the customer service at the Eighth Avenue post office, but it doesn’t have the space to hold packages after a missed delivery.

“As a monopoly provider, it should be Australia Post’s responsibility to respond to its customers’ needs by providing local parcel pick-up facilities,” Cr Petersen-Pik says.

Cr Petersen-Pik raised the issue at last week’s access and inclusion committee, saying it’s particularly a problem for people with mobility issues who can’t easily get to other suburbs.

He’s heard from dozens of residents frustrated by the package diversions.

“People are entitled to ask what the point of having a local post office is, if one of the most basic services –parcel collections – cannot be consistently provided at that office,” Cr Petersen-Pik said.

“People are busy and they are currently being forced to make a special car trip, if they’re able to drive to a different suburb, out of their way just to collect a parcel.”

He points out there’s no public transport service linking Maylands and Inglewood, so for people who can’t drive “there’s no convenient access.

Along with accessibility issues, he says it’s hampering their attempts to foster the strip’s village atmosphere.

“The current situation also takes people away from our town centre and its local shops.”

Australia Post issued just a two-line response: “Our priority is to ensure parcels are sent to the nearest post office or facility wherever possible for ease of collection for our customers.

“Due to the high volumes of parcels being delivered in the local area, there are unfortunately occasions when a post office is at capacity, and a nearby post office will need to be used as an alternative.”

According to affected Maylands residents, those “occasions” are nearly every time.

by DAVID BELL

VINCE CONNELLY has won a tight gender-fuelled race to become the Liberal candidate for Stirling at the upcoming federal election.

The former army officer pipped Michelle Sutherland by just two votes at last Saturday’s pre-selection meeting (February 23).

High-profile candidate Joanne Quinn was a favourite in the lead-up, but could only muster four votes and didn’t make it past the first round.

She was allegedly backed by party powerbrokers Mathias Cormann and Peter Collier, issuing a six-page brochure to delegates outlining her credentials ahead of the vote.

But the rank and file were keen on Mr Connelly, who is vice-president of the Liberal Party’s Stirling division.

Ms Sutherland, a Bayswater councillor, says she was a bit disillusioned with the machinations of the pre-selection, but the experience has whetted her appetite to run at state level.

“I think it should be left to the branches to decide and there shouldn’t be so much interference from federal pollies,” she told the Voice.

Ms Sutherland, president of the Liberal Yokine branch, believes she might have got over the line if the powerbrokers hadn’t split the female vote and backed Ms Quinn.

With four women contesting the Stirling pre-selection, commentators saw it as a chance for the Libs to readdress the gender imbalance in the party, as less than one quarter of their federal MPs are female.

In contrast The Labor Party has used a gender quota system for years and is close to achieving 50 per cent female representation.

Ms Sutherland, state president of the WA Liberal Women’s Council, says that after the election the party should sit down and discuss how it can get more women onboard.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THERE was a big turnout for the debut Maylands Laneway Festival last Saturday (February 23), but many attendees were left saying it needed more stuff to do.

Bayswater council asked attendees for feedback and about half the people posting on the event’s Facebook page were disappointed.

One person said that it took them just 10 minutes to walk through the festival twice, and the silent disco turned up too late to even get set up.

Feedback included “disappointing—why wasn’t Eighth Ave closed and lined with food trucks”, and “not many food stalls or other interesting things going on,” and one attendee said calling it a ‘festival’ “is a stretch”.

With a budget of $15,000 council always intended the festival to be a low-key event, but for many attendees it was a snore-fest.

Bayswater south ward councillor Catherine Ehrhardt said it’s not unusual to get some complaints after an event, and this didn’t seem like an inordinate number of gripes; noting she’d received a lot of positive feedback too.

People asked for more food stalls and food trucks, but Cr Ehrhardt said the intent was that people would buy grub from local shops.

“It was about showcasing local businesses and all the restaurants did a booming trade that night.”

Bayswater mayor Dan Bull said “this is the first time the city has trialed an event of this kind in a laneway, and it was great to offer the community something a bit different while showcasing the amazing local businesses in here in Perth’s inner east”.

by DAVID BELL

After a two-year delay the notorious Stirling Towers in Highgate will finally be demolished and replaced with contemporary mixed housing.

The department of communities first mooted redeveloping the public housing site in 2014, and all the residents were relocated years ago.

Early last year the department was in contract negotiations with a preferred partner, but they withdrew from the procurement process.

This week the department announced they were aiming to lodge a development application with Vincent council in June.

Plans are still on the drawing board but the idea is that it’ll be an “integrated community” with apartments and townhouses catering for a mix of families, downsizers, couples and singles.

Aiming to avoid the aesthetic mistakes of the past, it’ll have landscape gardens, communal areas and a ground-floor cafe.

The development will have a mix of social and affordable housing, as well as properties for sale at market value.

The DoC’s Greg Cash says “we see this as a great opportunity to showcase what’s possible in the creation of first class integrated communities through infill development close to transport, entertainment and other amenity.

“The department of communities will seek community feedback on the proposed designs to ensure this development adds to the emerging vibrancy of the Highgate/Beaufort Street area.

“As part this, the department will continue to keep locals informed as decisions are made and key milestones achieved.”

The schedule for demolition and construction won’t be set until the department gets planning approval.

by DAVID BELL

A NEW pedestrian crossing planned for outside Beatty Park will help residents walk between the north and south of Vincent.

When he was Vincent mayor, now-Perth MP John Carey was contacted by lots of parents living south of Vincent Street, who felt unsafe crossing the street to get to the pool and park.

They said the median strip there was so small you couldn’t even squeeze on a pram, cyclists had to stand with their bikes side-on and some people were forced to pick up their dogs to cross the road.

Mr Carey made an election commitment to install a crossing, and after some prodding it’s going ahead with $200,000 funding from the state government.

Main Roads says that because of traffic flow and pedestrian safety the crossing will be located near the Florence Street entrance, rather than closer to the Beatty Park centre.

Mr Carey says that southern chunk of Vincent, the “Cleaver Precinct”, is cut off by the pedestrian-unfriendly Charles Street, and the new crossing will help connect both halves of the city.

“It has been an area that has been cut off, so it’s really important that we make Cleaver precinct accessible and walkable. The more you can walk in a neighbourhood the healthier and more connected it is.”

Vincent mayor Emma Cole welcomed the new crossing.

“We are an inner city community divided by main roads,” she says, and crossings are needed to reunite them.

She also mentioned that Main Roads had been easier to deal with in recent years, helping to get projects off the ground.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER council is set to hand over the running of Mertome Village to private aged care operator Fresh Fields.

The ageing aged care facility on Winnifred Road has been in need of redevelopment for years, and in 2016 Bayswater council voted to sell the Village to an aged care operator for redevelopment and to lease out the site on a long term basis.

This week the council advertised a proposal for a 99 year “reasonable market rent” lease to Fresh Fields, comprising of a 40- year term, plus a 30-year and 29-year option. Submissions close on March 5.

A lot of Mertome residents wanted Bayswater council to retain ownership of the Village, and councillors were split over the sell-off, but in 2016 councillors decided the redevelopment costs were onerous and residents were better off with a private aged care operator.

No current resident can be moved without their consent, and the council report states “any redevelopment needs to happen in consultation with residents”.

by DAVID BELL